This has been the month brought to you by the letter "S"!
Surgery, Spay, Sickness and Snow
I am glad it's over!
We started off the month with extreme temps so school were closed for two days. We were happy to be home with a fire in the fireplace and grateful that none of our pipes burst. Many dealt with freezing pipes and water damage.
I finally got my life together enough to send our our annual Best Christmas Card Award and it went to the Myers family and you can see why...
Seriously deserving of this "major award"!
Sam started his new job at Heritage Assisted Living Center this month and he's there twice a week. On Tuesday's he hosts The Price is Right and on Wednesday he does other things like helping paint birdhouses or call Bingo. This is the ideal job for Sam and we are truly grateful to Heritage. Some of the ladies remarked, "Sam has 20 grandmas!" So great!
We took advantage of the cold weather spell and swam in the 91 degree pool.
My car hit 100K miles!
For years we've know that Sam would need surgery to help him get more range of motion in his right foot. His Achilles has always been tight and no matter how much PT or how many different kinds of braces we've tried over the years, surgery was inevitable.
We've been seeing Dr. Bruce for 9 years and once he said it was time, we took the opportunity to get a second opinion and we saw Dr. Flanagan. The first thing they asked was if I had an x-ray and that was a no, we've never had an x-ray taken. After the x-ray and consultation, it was decided that surgery is the way to go, along with a shoe lift to help with his leg length discrepancy. This is why we went with Dr. Flanagan. In 9+ years of seeing Dr. Bruce, an x-ray was never ordered.
I scheduled the surgery, unbeknownst to Sam, for Thursday, January 16th. This was a long weekend and gave us a day off of school. I told Sam we were there for a shunt x-ray and CT scan which he tolerates. The staff were so good with him and even though he was cranky, he did well. Once the versed was on board, he was good to go. The doctors wheeled him down and that was that!
Picture that Dr. Flanagan drew to show what she did.
Sam's O2 was a little low so he had to have supplemental oxygen but he woke up fairly well, didn't like the cast but was tolerant.
The nurse dosed him up with pain meds before the ride home and he's been a champ ever since.
We've had so many deeds of kindness...dinner brought in, gifts sent, texts, phone calls, prayers, etc. Here's a darling gift from 2 of our neighbor boys who are so kind to Sam.
I seriously sat in bed crying that night. Such compassion for a 15 and a 9 year old. We love these boys.
After about a week we noticed that Sam was hyper-extending his knee so I had the PT look at him and sure enough, it was happening so we had to have his cast shoe modified.
The following week it was Millie's turn...SPAY! Poor girl had a rough first day but did well afterward.
Sam and I went to the Kiwana's Club all-you-can-eat-pancake breakfast and had fun there! A huge event here in PTC.
Then it was time for the Snowmageddon! Snowpocolypse!
Who knew that 2.5 inches of snow would paralyze the 9th largest city in America.
The snow started around 10am and just kept going.
Sam was asleep, due to his cold, but I went to check on him because I needed to go get some ice melt at Ace Hardware. He woke up and wanted to go which is a good thing because it got tricky.
We left the house around noon and it was already bad, I ended up turning around to head back home after traffic had already stopped then got stopped again (photo below) for about 40 minutes because cars couldn't get up the slight incline from the ice. I was sent thru a neighborhood and after picking up the ice melt and lunch at McDs, it was a 2 hour trip that should have taken about 20 minutes.
Abby's school let out too late and it was dangerous by then. It took her 2 hours to get home and it took Todd 3+ hours to get home from Atlanta. We felt pretty lucky with those time frames. Many were trapped in cars on the freeways, cars were abandoned, kids couldn't get home from school, etc. It was really bad. Atlanta is ill-equipped to handle winter weather.
Once we were home safe and sound, it was time to play in the snow.
Even Sam was able to play with a well-wrapped cast. Sledding and all!
We were out of school the rest of the week and to top off a stellar month, I got Sam's cold that he lovingly shared with me.
Goodbye January 2014, I won't miss you at all!
